Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2022. We are republishing it following the death of Hulk Hogan.
Thirty years ago, more than 62,000 people piled into the Hoosier Dome for the biggest spectacle in sports entertainment.
There were big, greased men. There were epic mullets. There were big, greased men with epic mullets.
Wrestlemania VIII brought some of the biggest names in professional wrestling history, including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and “Macho Man” Randy Savage to Indianapolis on April 5, 1992. Bret “The Hitman” Hart painted a little corner of Indianapolis with his blood during an all-time great bout with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.
The show featured a first-ever double main event: Flair vs. Savage for the then-WWF title, and Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice — a disastrous choice for die-hard wrestling fans, who remember the latter match as one of the worst in history. But the finale drew massive cheers from the local crowd, with the Indianapolis News reporting at the time that the ovation lasted for 10 minutes after the pay-per-view cameras shut off.
Although Indianapolis has a storied professional wrestling history and remains a regular spot for WWE’s smaller shows, the city has yet to host another Wrestlemania. The city made a formal bid in 2018, IndyStar columnist James Briggs reported, but it was not selected.
Wrestlemania has since expanded into a two-day event.
Asked recently about future Wrestlemania prospects, Chris Gahl, a senior vice president for the city’s tourism agency, Visit Indy, said the city will continue to look into large sporting events as its convention facilities expand in the next few years.
“In partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp, the Capital Improvement Board, and the Mayor’s Office, Visit Indy continues to look for major conventions and sports-related events to fill up our city with visitors, including taking a healthy look at bidding to host Wrestlemania again,” Gahl said.
My dad tells me I watched Wrestlemania VIII live, but I don’t remember it, as I was 3. I have seen a few of the event’s matches in the years since after hearing them referenced on best-of shows or podcasts.
I recently watched the event in its entirety for the first time. It’s dated, for sure, but a lot of it still holds up pretty well. Here’s my recap, 30 years after the fact.
Introductions/national anthem
There is an immediate sense of place, as the first kid shown on the broadcast is wearing an Indianapolis Motor Speedway hat.
Several “Bobby Heenan for President” signs are also visible. Although Heenan was a bad guy, and would spend most of the show bashing Indiana and its Hoosiers, he was a star for Dick the Bruiser’s World Wrestling Association in Indianapolis during the ’60s and ’70s.
Reba McEntire, decked in an awesome black suit jacket featuring embroidered gold dancers and sporting truly iconic hair, sang the national anthem.
Tito Santana vs. Shawn Michaels
Note: The streaming version of Wrestlemania VIII does not include the untelevised dark match between the Bushwhackers and the Beverly Brothers, so I’m skipping that one.
Tito Santana, doing The Matador gimmick, helped Reba down from the ring after making his entrance.
Santana is now a Spanish teacher now in New Jersey. Can you imagine? Get your conjugations wrong, and you’re going through a table.
Anyway, this is early in Shawn Michaels’ legendary solo career, and his persona is just about where I remember it from the mid-’90s.
Heenan makes his first crack about the locals: “These dumb Hoosiers here in Indiana are so stupid. Last night, you were supposed to set clock ahead, and they set it back.” He was referencing an apparently major traffic jam outside the Hoosier Dome, with thousands of people yet to make it to their seats.
This is a pretty decent match with a bad ending, as Michaels basically falls on Santana for the one. Shame.
I’m giving this two Rebas out of a possible five.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. The Undertaker
Like Michaels, this is early in Undertaker’s hall-of-fame career. His introduction and persona is close, but not quite as epic as I remember it seeing him live a few years later.
Roberts is looking particularly greasy on this fine Indiana evening. The poor guy never had a chance.
It was an OK match, but not too much drama as it was basically impossible to stop The Undertaker in those days.
Three urns out of five.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart
Bret Hart is my favorite wrestler of all time, so this is one of the matches I had previously seen. I was also a huge Piper fan.
The fact that they were legitimate friends who had known each other for years (Piper even claimed to be Hart’s cousin), and they used that for the storyline, made it extra epic. Two Canadians leaving it all in the ring.
It’s just a fabulous match. Piper wants to show he can wrestle like Hart, and Hart wants to show he can brawl like Piper. There’s blood everywhere by the end and Piper, a famous bad guy, has the chance to end Hart with the ring bell while the referee is down. The Hoosier Dome audience begs him not to, he relents and Hart beats him to win the Intercontinental Title.
Piper helps Hart up, they hug and leave together. Fuzzy feelings had by all.
Five maple leaves out of five.
Big Boss Man, Virgil, Jim Duggan and Sgt. Slaughter vs. Nasty Boys, Repo Man and The Mountie
Just about every wrestler on the roster who didn’t have something else to do that night is piled into this mess of a match. There were more wrestlers than minutes. Good guys win, and let’s move on.
One Virgil out of five.
Ric Flair vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage
The storyline for this one is a bit problematic, especially by modern standards: Ric Flair claims to have had a relationship with Savage’s wife, and he will show the crowd photos to prove it. Not legal, Mr. Flair.
But the match is an excellent one. Savage and Flair are two of the best ever.
Both performed their most iconic moves, including Savage jumping from the top turnbuckle all the way to the floor outside (which you didn’t see often in those days).
After a number of possible endings and extensive cheating by Flair’s side, Savage wins with a little bit of rule-bending of his own. Savage’s wife, Ms. Elizabeth, also slaps Flair a few times.
Bad guy loses his championship, and the pig gets smacked. Classic wrestling.
Five “Oh yeaaaaahs” out of five.
Tatanka vs. Rick Martel
I was a Tatanka fan back in the day. I got a signed photo from him at a fan event leading up to the 1996 Royal Rumble in my hometown.
He beats Martel in a quick little match. Man, Martel had some pink tights/boots. They haven’t made that color since 1995. I am sure of it.
Two neon pinks out of five.
Money Inc. vs. The Natural Disasters
Man, some powerful mullets at work in this one. Typhoon’s is especially epic — long and curly in the back but super short and tight up front.
I dig The Natural Disasters. Two huge dudes who just sort of squish people. It’s fun.
“The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and I.R.S. are normal sized with much less aggressive mullets, so they just sort of bounce once it’s clear they are going to be squished. I can respect that, but it doesn’t make for a very good match.
Two mullets out of five.
Owen Hart vs. Skinner
What a joke.
Skinner is just in the ring. Some weird, vaguely Floridian dude. He’s not even introduced.
Hart comes out in a true car accident of an outfit. Neon green and purple with checkered print all over. Even in Indianapolis, that looks awful. I hope whoever made that was put in prison.
He beats Skinner in like a minute.
Zero checked fashion crimes out of five.
Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice
Hogan’s best days are behind him at this point, and he was doing a lot of movies at the time, so it’s not a huge surprise that this wasn’t a great technical wrestling match. USA TODAY’s For the Win named it the second-worst Wrestlemania main event of all time as of 2020.
He’s the biggest wrestling star at that point and probably ever, and the crowd loves him. Justice is big, bad guy, and he’s despised. Hogan gets attacked before he can rip off his tank top, and someone forgets to turn off his theme music for a long time. He fights Justice off then does the rip, to everyone’s great delight.
It’s more posing and yelling for the crowd than wrestling moves. There are maybe 10 moves the entire match, compared to like 60 in the Hart match.
Hogan is getting pumped but then, for no reason at all, it’s Papa Shango. He was in this video game I had for the Sega Game Gear.
Shango and Justice beat up Hogan, and then the entire purpose of the match is revealed as The Ultimate Warrior returns to the WWE to save Hogan. The Hoosiers are going nuts in their Dome.
I was the exact target audience for The Ultimate Warrior. I had his coloring book. It’s a pretty cool moment, but the actual match needed to get there is forgettable.
Two Mr. Nannies out of five.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Wrestlemania brought wrestling, mullets and more to Indianapolis more than 30 years ago
Reporting by Rory Appleton / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
